STILIYAN Petrov squares up against Portsmouth tomorrow with no regrets about not being able to sign for Pompey in the summer.

STILIYAN Petrov squares up against Portsmouth tomorrow with no regrets about not being able to sign for Pompey in the summer.

The Bulgarian midfielder was Harry Redknapp's chief transfer target but could not agree a fee despite prolonged pressure over many weeks.

Martin O'Neill eventually managed to secure his #7million signature and Petrov admits: "I was very close to joining Portsmouth.

"They came in with a few bids and if Celtic had accepted their first, second or third bids, I could've been their player now. But Celtic didn't accept them and I'm here now.

"I'm glad that's all over because it was a big pressure on me. I'm a Villa player now so it doesn't matter.

"I made the right decision coming here and like every player at this club, we'll fight to get to a good place in the table.

"That's what we're going to do. " Petrov insists Villa will not allow their heads to drop on the back of one bad display against Manchester City in midweek.

"We won't put our heads down just because we've had one or two bad performances," he said. "We'll fight and try to play well again. The main thing now is how we're going to get out of this situation that we found ourselves in after Wednesday night.

"We know we're not going to lose out on a European place just because of one bad match.

"The manager and the players know what we did wrong - we were sloppy and there were a lot of basic things we didn't do in the game.

"We didn't help each other and that cost us the game. We will put that right in the games coming up."

Villa were written off at Everton after losing heavily at Chelsea but went on to secure three deserved points.

Petrov believes Villa will approach tomorrow in similar vein.

"We have to bounce back by having a good result at Portsmouth and we'll go there and fight to get the right result. It's good to have another game so soon - I think that's what everyone wants because we all want the match so we can put things right and give everything.

"They're playing well, but we're playing in the best league in the world and we expect teams to get at us. We're just focusing on our game.

"We lost at Chelsea and then we went to Everton and put in a great performance. That sort of thing can inspire us.

"It's still early and I hope people say by the end of the season that us and Portsmouth are still the two surprise teams of the Premier League."

Meanwhile, after 14 fruitless matches, Petrov is out to end his goal drought at Fratton Park having hit the crossbar against City.

"It was a good free-kick, but it wasn't good enough. It will happen one day - it seems like the luck is against me scoring at the moment - but that will change.

"I'll keep working. The main thing is we keep improving as a team and we don't repeat that performance. We'll try to learn from our mistakes."